Can someone steel man the argument for banning him from attending the 9/11 ceremony? Is it only because he’s Muslim? He obviously had nothing to do with the tragedy and has never said anything even remotely close to condoning or praising it.
Do people really consider him somehow partially associated with 9/11 just because he’s a Muslim?
As a preface, its pretty obvious that the "pro ban" crowd rationale, at best, is influenced by islamophobia. That said, their reasoning is a bit all over the place but two of the bigger sticking points is that Mamdani met with Siraj Wahaj (and was photographed with him), and his chief counsel repped Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in/at his guantanamo tribunal. In terms of the latter, its total BS to imply that a criminal defendant somehow holds the same views as his client or is sympathetic to his beliefs. Every defendant is entitled to a defense.
The former is also pretty shaky. People like to say Wahaj is an "unindicated co-conspirator" of the 93 WTC bombings but this is inaccurate. Yes, he appeared on a list of "known/possible associates" with the main suspects, but one of the prosecutors later came out and said that this list was not a list of suspects, and included anybody associated, whether they were innocent witnesses or possible conspirators. To be fair, Wahaj did testify at the trial of the Blind Sheik Abdel-Rahman in his defense, and Rahman was convicted of terrorism after the 93 WTC investigation led investigators to him, but he is not directly associated with WTC attacks. Finally, other mayors have met with Wahaj, so, at best, the criticism is a double standard.
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u/MoorsMoopsMoorsMoops Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26
Can someone steel man the argument for banning him from attending the 9/11 ceremony? Is it only because he’s Muslim? He obviously had nothing to do with the tragedy and has never said anything even remotely close to condoning or praising it.
Do people really consider him somehow partially associated with 9/11 just because he’s a Muslim?